


To Keep an Open Mind

by AnnM_4



Category: Hellboy (Movies)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 22:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12198915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnM_4/pseuds/AnnM_4
Summary: Willow, a powerful telepath, has lived and worked with the B.P.R.D. for as long as she can remember. She can get into anyone's mind without effort, everyone except Hellboy's. But he has his reasons for shutting her out.*Updates will be few and far between, I'm so sorry*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Made a few edits to this chapter. Was reading back through it and found some grammatical things I wanted to clear up. Made some very minor changes.

I was talking to myself again. Not that I ever really stopped talking to myself. I don’t think anyone ever does, but this time I was talking out loud. That's what I did in the shower.  
“I can’t believe… What kind of idiot thinks ‘Oh, maybe if I do this dance move, I’ll get them to laugh’? It’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. If the professor weren’t so happy when I went back today, I swear I’d never go back again. It’s just amazing how incredibly stupid these people are. I can’t believe any of them bought that I was eighteen, I know I don’t look ancient at all, but still... And the professors! Can’t forget them. I’ve never seen minds so varied. Some tied up in how brilliant they are, some actually willing to teach. Oh, and that horrible calculus professor in the halls, the perver-“ There was a knock at the bathroom door, “Who is it?” I called.  
“Who do you think?” came a gruff voice from outside.  
“Red!” I shouted. I shut off the water, tugged on my robe, and ripped the door open. Standing in front of me was a hulking, red, angry-looking demon. “You’re back!” I flung myself at him.  
“Whoa, hey, watch the goods, you’re all wet. Did you miss me?” He wrapped me in a bear hug even as he protested, squeezing the breath out of me. I left a sizeable wet mark on his trench coat.  
“Of course I missed you! I’m so glad you’re back, I actually went to school today, something about I didn’t get to have a normal childhood so I should savor the college experience, even though it’s a little late and I’m miles ahead of all the other students- and yes, I am serious,” I said, laughing at the dumbfounded look on his face, “But I didn’t like it, so the world isn’t ending, don’t worry. I can’t remember the last time I heard so many idiotic thoughts, including the professors. Don’t tell me you couldn’t hear me ranting about it in the shower.”  
He chuckled, “Yeah, I thought I heard something about a pervert. What do you expect from boys just out of high school?”  
“No, I shouldn’t expect that from high school boys, they should be able to control themselves. Anyway, it wasn’t a boy I was talking about, it was a professor. He had the most obscene thoughts, he was planning how to make up a seating chart based on the size of his female students’ breasts. I’m trying to think of a way to get him fired, I’m sure he’s probably sleeping with some poor, idiot student. But enough about me, when did you get in? How did the assignment go? Have you seen the Professor yet?” Hellboy was the only person whom I ever had to ask these kinds of questions; he was the only person I couldn’t read, and that was saying something. Unless Professor Broom was truly emptying his mind, I could read even him.  
Hellboy chuckled exasperatedly and walked out of the hall into my room, “Hey, nice new poster. Goin’ through another phase, are we?” He pointed at a huge glossy print of Superman.  
“What can I say, I like to live through Superman. At least somebody around here gets recognized for their good deeds. Although I kind of regret buying him. His eyes follow you around the room and he has that smirk, like he knows all your secrets. Which, I suppose he does, living in my room and all. You’re avoiding my questions.”  
“Jeez, can’t a guy be a home for two seconds before he plays twenty questions?” He asked incredulously.  
I rolled my eyes, “Red, you’ve been gone for months. The least you can do is answer my questions. Or, you could just let me in…” I trailed off, raising my eyebrows.  
“Not a chance, kid. Go get dressed, we’re having a briefing in the library.” He stumped out of my rooms into the hall, the automatic door sliding shut behind him with a clang.   
I smiled and rolled my eyes as I pulled on a shirt and pants. Fine, I thought, if he’s not going to tell me his news, I won’t tell him mine. I looked down at the new tattoo on my forearm, and felt my shoulder where I knew my second one to be as I made my way to the library. ‘New’ was a relative term; I’d had them for about a month and a half. On my shoulder were several flowers, and on my forearm was a very simple drawing of a bicycle. I didn’t really have a reason for the one on my shoulder beyond the aesthetic, but the one on my arm did have some significance to me. Above all though, they were small ways of taking back my body, and I didn’t regret them for a minute. When you live in an underground government compound with agents tracking your every move, you tend to take every opportunity to feel like you’re a little bit free.  
The enormity of the library hit me as soon as I walked through the door, as it always did. There were shelves upon shelves of books that spanned the entirety of nearly every wall. There was a spiral staircase in the far corner which led to an alcove that housed yet more books, and a grand piano that I liked to play when no one was around. The wall opposite the door that I entered through was made entirely of glass, like a giant fish tank. Indeed, in a way, it was one. Abe Sapien, the being that inhabited the tank, was said to be the ‘missing link’ between man and fish. That is, until his abilities were discovered. He and I were very much alike. By touching a person or an object with special membranes on his hands, or even sometimes just the air around it, he could sense everything about the individual or item. He could sense what was going on inside of a room just by touching the door. That was where we differed; he used his hands to sense, I needed no such help. I simply locked eyes with someone and I could read them. But where he could sense almost everything about what he was touching, I could only read a person’s innermost thoughts.  
I walked over to the tank and lined my hand up with his through the glass, instantly connecting us.  
“Hello Abe,” I thought at him.  
“Hello Willow,” His voice echoed warmly in my head.  
With the formalities past, we let the events of the day and our thoughts and feelings flow freely between us, becoming a blur of pictures and sensations that only we could understand. I was long past the point of being embarrassed of anything about myself when it came to Abe. He simply knew me, and I him. We understood each other completely.  
“Good evening Willow,” An accented voice cracking with age sounded from behind me.  
I turned, breaking my connection with Abe, “Evening Professor. Who’s this?” A young and very average looking man stood near the couch, looking at me with a mix of curiosity and fear. “No, wait, don’t tell me.” I stared directly into his eyes and eased myself into his consciousness. “John T Myers, ‘Thaddeus’ after your mother’s brother. Oh, cancer, I am sorry. Scar on your chin from a bike wreck when you were te-“  
“Willow. Enough.” Said Professor Broom sharply.  
I tore my gaze from the young man, “Sorry.”  
Deep, booming laughter sounded from the doorway. Red sauntered over to the couch and sat. “It’s initiation. And a security check. And it’s fun to see their little eyes go wide.” He smirked at me.  
“Hellboy. How was the mission?” Inquired the Professor.  
Red straightened, “It went well, Father. Few… setbacks, but I found what I was looking for.”  
“And that would be… what, exactly?” I arched an eyebrow at him.  
Hellboy shot me a look. The Professor sighed and sat down. “Unimportant.” He said firmly.  
I rolled my eyes and went to sit next to Red on the couch. Abe drifted lazily to the glass of his enclosure and pressed his hand against it, to better understand what was going on in the room. I also knew that he used this seemingly casual gesture to check on the Professor from time to time. As far as I knew, and I knew almost everything, the Professor was as healthy as he had ever been, just tiring more and more easily.  
The Professor gestured for John Myers to sit, and waited for him to get settled before beginning. “Hellboy’s mission truly wasn’t not as exciting as you seem to think, Willow. He was sent to look for an artifact in Pompeii. It is suspected to be imbued with some sort of power.”  
“Naturally. Is it going to get stuck in a museum?” I asked.  
“Only after it goes through the standard procedure. I’ll need you and Abe in the lab sometime in the next week to see what you can detect.”  
I nodded, “Sure.”  
The Professor clapped his hands, “Now. On to more pleasant matters. How did you find your first day at school?”  
He looked so proud of me, and so hopeful, that my resolve to tell him I wasn’t going back crumbled. Although our team of ‘freaks’ was usually successful in the field, we weren’t very successful socially. Of course, that was to be expected of Red and Abe, who could only be inconspicuous on Halloween. But the Professor had always expected me to go out and be social with other people my age. He wanted me to experience the world as a normal person, partly I think because he knew Hellboy would never be able to. I knew he felt guilty that so much of my life was spent inside the B.P.R.D. instead of doing normal kid things, but that was normal for me. I truly didn’t enjoy interacting with people my age. I spent so much of my time living in mature minds that to live in the minds of teenagers was excruciating.  
I had tried a few times before to go to school, or even to just some sort of group of kids that met on a regular basis, like a sports team or some kind of church function. The church functions never worked out for obvious reasons, I knew too much about the supernatural world and I’d often get into debates with the believers. Though really, I didn’t know anyone as devout as the Professor and the various people who worked with us. How can you interact so much with the unseen and not believe? I was actually quite good at sports, being always fit from field training. My ability was always quite useful as well, I could always tell what the other team was going to do. Ultimately, I stopped playing sports because I didn’t feel it was fair to the other players.  
School was the real torture though. I’d tried to attend school at least once every two years since I was eight. When I was very young and couldn’t control myself well, I would scare the other children with my strange knowledge of their inner thoughts. As I got older, the kids got into cliques and it became harder and harder to fit in. I would be absent for weeks at a time on missions, and my peers would start to wonder. Once I actually told a girl what I had been doing in the week that I was gone, and she just laughed and let it go. That only really worked once, though. I also just liked to be alone, and that’s hard to do when you’re shoved into a classroom for eight hours a day and in training for the rest of it.  
But the Professor had heard it all before from me and had urged me to try again.  
“It was okay. A few more… inappropriate thoughts than I needed to hear, but what do you expect?” I shrugged and lied through my teeth.  
“And will you be returning tomorrow?”  
I managed not to cringe and nodded.  
“Wonderful. I’m very proud of you, Willow. Everyone should experience college, if they can.” He genuinely smiled at me, a rare treat that was usually reserved for perfect missions or a very good book. Suddenly going to school didn’t seem like such a burden.  
After the briefing, Hellboy and I walked back toward our rooms.  
“Glad you told Father you were going back. I’m grateful.”  
I knitted my brow, “What for?”  
He shrugged, “I just like to know that somebody’s not disappointing him, that’s all.”  
“Red, you know he’s proud of you. Look at all the things you’ve done! How could he know even half of what you’ve accomplished and not be the proudest father on Earth? If you weren’t a primary color, he’d have you schlepping off to school right along with me, and you’d hate it just as much.” He rolled his eyes, “Oh, whatever, you know I’m right. Anyway, what exactly did you find? What kind of power was it supposed to hold? You’re still a little sandy… Did you take a detour? Did you get to see a sand wyvern? Because I’ve been wanting to see one for ages and if he sent you first- what?”  
We’d reached my room. Hellboy leaned against the frame, chuckling, “Nothing. Missed you, that’s all. I almost forgot how many questions you asked.”  
“Yeah, well, I missed you too. All that time and not one phone call, a girl could explode from not having someone to talk to. And no, Abe is not the same.”  
He gave a half-smile, “Sorry.”  
“Yeah, yeah. Now, really,” I crossed my arms and looked up at him, “Why won’t you let me in? You never answer my questions and then you complain when I ask them. How am I supposed to know anything about you? There can’t possibly be anything in that big head of yours that I’ve never seen before, so there’s really no excuse.”  
He gazed at me for a long while, not saying anything. Finally, he spoke, “There are just some things I’m not ready for you to know yet, kid.”  
I sighed, “Mm-hm. And another thing. You missed my birthday. I’m twenty.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek, the door to my room sliding shut before he could say anything. I waited on the other side, barely breathing. I could feel him frozen in the hall.  
“Crap.”  
I giggled softly, turning away into my room. It was so fun, playing with him like that. He was so oblivious, I knew he’d never realize I actually felt something for him. It was just so fun to see him flustered. I even fancied that I could tell when he was blushing.

_________

“Abe, that kid is gonna kill me.” Red stormed into the deserted library.  
“What now?” Abe floated to the glass and casually placed a webbed hand against it.  
Hellboy shot him a look, “Get your hand away from that glass, I can tell you what you need to know.”  
Abe snatched his hand back.  
Hellboy shook his head and began pacing in front of the couch, “She has no idea what she’s doing, I know she doesn’t. She just tugs me around on a string, and I just let her. She’s always begging me to let her in and to open up to her, but how can I do that? She’d find out, and I don’t want to push her away. She’s my best friend.” He sat down on the couch in a huff.  
“Have you ever thought that perhaps she feels the same way about you?”  
“No, she couldn’t. She’s so beautiful and I’m- well, look at me! I’m a half-demon, a prince of Hell. If she knew what was good for her, she’d never even talk to me.”  
Abe drifted lazily in the water, “What happened to bring this on? You didn’t feel like this earlier.”  
Hellboy passed his left hand over his face and sighed, “We were talking outside her room and she asked me why I wouldn’t let her in, and her arms were crossed and she was staring up at me… Then, when I told her no, she told me she was twenty, kissed my cheek, and went into her room.”  
“She’s not a child, it sounds like she knows exactly what she’s doing.” Abe was almost smirking, which for him was the equivalent of raucous laughter.  
“No, I’m sure she- what are you saying?” Hellboy looked up from his lap.  
Abe tilted his head, “I know her better than anyone.”  
Hellboy looked at the blue humanoid in disbelief, “You mean she’s doing it on purpose? She knows what she’s doing to me?”  
“She may not know the extent to which she’s torturing you, but even without being inside your mind, you’re fairly easy to read. She knows that it bothers you, and that you care for her and she cares for you, though she’s not sure how deeply yet. But, Red… Don’t give up on her before you’ve begun.”  
Hellboy sighed. He opened his mouth to say something when the first notes of Fur Elise came drifting down from the piano room. He closed his eyes as the bittersweet melody flowed around the library.  
Abe’s huge eyes seemed to soften, “She misses you. It’s been a long time since you’ve been home, and she had a rather hard mission a few weeks back. She’s confused, Red. You’ve been here all her life, and I think she’s starting to see things differently. Give it time. Now, I’m going to sleep, and I suggest you do too. Training in the morning.” He swam around the corner of his tank.  
Hellboy lingered a while longer until the music stopped. He was just dozing off when Willow came down the spiral staircase into the library.  
__________

I stopped short at the base of the stairs. “Oh. I didn’t know you were still up, I figured you’d still be tired from the mission.”  
“Uh, couldn’t sleep. Had a chat with Abe, but he went to bed.”  
I went to the couch and sat down. One of Abe’s records began to play, the one he would listen to when he’d had a particularly long day and needed to relax. I leaned on Hellboy’s shoulder. He tensed up, then slowly relaxed. “I know I’ve said it before, but I missed you. A lot’s been going on, I needed someone to talk to about it.”  
He sighed, “I know kid. I’m sorry.”  
“No, it’s not your fault, it’s not as if you could just pick up the phone and call. I just sometimes need a real person to talk to, no reading minds.” I chuckled, “I even like the mystery of not knowing what you’re going to say before you say it. It makes me feel normal. You know?” I adjusted my head to look up at his face.   
He stared at Abe’s empty tank opposite us, “Yeah, I know. Say, what do you say tomorrow after training we go and…”

________ 

She didn’t answer. Hellboy looked down and found Willow asleep on his shoulder. Abe couldn’t be right. This innocent- looking young woman on his shoulder couldn’t know how he was beginning to feel for her. She couldn’t possibly know, because there could only be two reasons for her to torture him, and he knew neither of them could be true.  
Reason number one: she knew exactly what she was doing and was doing it because she enjoyed playing with him, not because she had feelings for him. That couldn’t be it, because Willow wasn’t cruel. Sure, she’d give him a hard time, and she rubbed it in his face when she won their sparring matches (rarely), but she would never really hurt him.   
Reason number two: she knew what she was doing and she did it anyway because she felt the same way about him. Hellboy snorted. She could never feel the same about him, he was a walking stop sign. A giant red prince of Hell with horns and a tail, for God’s sake. He could never be what she needed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had some formatting issues with this one because that's the kind of day I'm having

I shot up in bed, sending a pillow flying. “Mmh?” I looked around, located the alarm clock, and pounded on the snooze. I was just settling back into bed when the door to my rooms opened.  
“Rise and shine!” a horribly loud voice came from the foot of my bed.  
I rolled over and buried my head in the pillows, “No. Ten minutes.”  
“Nope! My orders say to get you up now, no snoozing.” my sheets were ripped away from my bed and I shivered in the sudden cold, “That’s your fault for having it so cold in here all the time. There’s training today before you have to go to school.”  
I sat straight up and narrowed my eyes at the loudmouth agent, diving into his head. ‘If you ever speak like that to me again, I will permanently incapacitate you. We are not friends. You will be respectful to me, and you will not come further than three feet into my room. Now you will please leave and request that you never get put on wake-up duty again.’  
The agent, now white as a sheet, nodded shortly and scurried out of my rooms. I sighed, knowing I was going to get in trouble for that. But really, what was he thinking, barging in on me and laying his hands on my sheets? For all he knew, I could’ve been sleeping naked. 

I made my way to the training room some twenty minutes later with two coffees in my hands.  
“Heard you started with the mind games a little early this morning. What did the poor sap do besides wake you up?” Hellboy said as I handed his coffee to him.  
I cocked an eyebrow “You really wanna know?” he nodded “He barged into my room, no knocking, and ripped my sheets off.”  
Hellboy stopped in the middle of raising the cup to his lips, “He touched your sheets?”  
I walked over to the edge of the sparring mat, setting down my coffee and beginning to stretch, “Yep. Good thing I actually wore clothes to bed last night, or I would’ve scarred him more permanently. Isn’t it somewhere in their contract that they can’t touch us physically? Not that he actually touched my body itself… but that should be in the paperwork. Although I guess that wouldn’t make sense, because what are we gonna do, sue them?” I looked over my shoulder to see an empty room, “Red?”

 

He stormed down the hall, making his way to the Professor’s office. Just as he reached the door, the professor emerged.  
“I’ve already heard from the agent. He won’t be posted to wake-up duty again. Although it’s a miracle if anyone stays on wake-up duty for more than two weeks with that child…” he sighed and shook his head exasperatedly.  
Hellboy clenched his stone hand, “The agent didn’t just wake her up, he took her sheets off of her without her permission and-”  
“I’m well aware of what he did. He’s been moved elsewhere.” the wizened old professor placed a hand on Hellboy’s sleeve, “Now, if I’m not mistaken, there’s a girl in the training room looking to get some sparring in before her classes.” he patted Hellboy’s sleeve and returned to his office.

I was just sitting down to drink my coffee when the new agent, Myers, walked in. His eyes widened when he saw me.  
“Sorry. I was just taking a look around-” He turned to leave.  
“No, it’s fine, I’m just waiting for Hellboy to spar with me. He’s been gone for a while though… how are your moves?”  
He looked behind him as if to make sure that I was talking to him. “Are you asking me to train with you?”  
I shrugged, “Only a little light hand-to-hand. You up for it? I don’t have time to wait much longer, I have to get to class.” I raised my eyebrow.  
He stared for a second longer, then seemed to shake himself and stepped back toward the center of the room, taking off his uniform jacket as he went.  
It wasn’t much of a struggle. He was bigger than me, although nowhere close to Red’s size, and between that and the fact that he seemed to try to take it easy on me, I had him pinned within the first few minutes.  
“I won’t break, you know,” I said, looking down at him from where I sat on his chest, “Again.” I stood up and waited.  
This time was a little more challenging. He would have beaten me, had it not been for my hours of practice with Red and Davy, one of the more vicious fighters that was on staff. In the end, we decided on a draw, stepping back from each other and panting.  
I smiled and wiped the sweat from my forehead, “You aren’t half bad, Myers. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”  
He opened his mouth to say something and quickly shut it again as he looked over my shoulder.  
“What?” I turned to see Hellboy standing in the doorway, “Oh. Hi! This one,” I pointed at the agent, who looked as if he were trying to shrink into himself, “isn’t a bad fighter. I’d lost hope for the new agents after that guy Leonard, but it looks like Myers’ training paid off.”  
Hellboy looked from me to Myers, “Sorry I took so long, I didn't know you couldn’t wait.”  
“Ah, yeah, I have a ten-thirty I need to get to, or I would’ve waited. Anyway, I need to shower before I go. I’ll see you later today?” I touched his shoulder as I walked through the door. 

_______ 

Myers just stood in the middle of the room, as if he was trying to collect himself. With a small start, he realized that he was being watched, and hastily retrieved his jacket, avoiding Hellboy’s gaze.  
As he approached Hellboy and the door, he paused.  
“Hellboy, I-”  
“You’re the new nanny, I know. Just stay outta my way.” he turned from the doorway and walked back down the hall to his rooms. Just as he sat on the couch, an alarm began to sound and a red light flashed from his wall. He let out an exasperated sigh and stood. “I hate Tuesdays.”

______

I was just stepping out of the shower as the alarm started shrieking. My eyes went wide, “Oh no! Does this mean I’ll have to skip my classes for today? I’m crushed!” I laughed to myself and rushed into my room to put on my clothes.  
I pranced into the elevator chamber, trying and not succeeding to get the smile off my face.  
“Willow? I thought you’d gone to school already.”  
“Nope!” I sent the Professor a grin, “I was just getting out of the shower when the lights started flashing.”  
He furrowed his brow, “Have you sent word to your professors?”  
I nodded, “I’m emailing them from the truck.”  
Red walked in, a nervous- looking Myers trailing behind him.  
“Hey Red! They’re playing our song! I love Tuesdays.” He turned and gave me what looked like a half-hearted smile. Huh. Wonder what’s got his undies in a twist. I’ll figure it out in the truck.  
We took the garbage truck. I didn’t say that to be funny, it was literally a garbage truck. On the inside, it was all bells and whistles and chrome, but that didn’t make any of us feel any better about getting into it. Hellboy never mentioned it, but I knew that it especially affected him. I’d tried again and again to convince him that he was better than almost any normal human that I knew, but I’d had little success.  
We climbed in, everyone seeming to settle down for a long journey.  
“Where are we going, anyway? I guess I missed the briefing.”  
“Moab.” Was all the response I could get out of Red. His eyes slid past me and rested on the window, not really seeing what was passing. I knew that I’d never get him to tell me what was wrong, so I moved over to sit next to Abe and touched his hand.  
Without speaking, I asked ‘Is there something wrong?’  
Abe staring straight ahead, replied ‘It is not something that he would want me to tell you. If he wants you to know, he’ll have to tell you himself.’ I tried not to be too hurt about that, but I saw Abe’s head tilt a little and I knew that he felt it. ‘You know how he likes to suffer in silence. He’ll just have to deal with it on his own.’  
‘I suppose. I just.. I want to be for him what he is to me. I want to be his rock, like he is mine. That was cheesy, but you know what I mean.’  
He did. ‘You are. He doesn’t show it, but you are.’  
I sighed and moved my hand away, leaning back against the side of the truck. It was a long way to Moab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while! Truthfully I've hit a wall and I don't know where exactly to go from here, which is why the chapter is so short. But I thought it would spur me to write more if I went ahead and posted what I have.

**Author's Note:**

> I switch from first to third person narration when I switch POVs??? Why?? Nobody knows. As much as it bothers readers, please be assured that it bothers me more, but I'm too lazy to change it now.


End file.
